The elephant in the room of Colorado elections : who controls elections:Trump or Colorado

 Jena Griswold, current Colorado Secretary of State and now the Democratic Party winner in the primaries for Attorney General, is engaged in a very strange campaign.  She faced three opponents in the primary, none of whom garnered more than around 15-17% of the vote and who attempted to defeat her based on her management style. However, none of them even acknowledged the national debate on who controls elections in the face of Trump's ongoing attempt to federalize elections and control the outcome on his behalf. Griswold served as the leader of the nation's Democratic Secretaries of State (at the state level) and did much to protect genuine voter integrity from election deniers and from Trump's attempt to seize control of the election process. State control of elections (not by the federal government) was granted in the Constitution.  

Update: 9/10/2026 Paul Lopez, Denver Clerk and Recorder, is not waiting for ICE to be at polling places to take action: He and Latino groups in Denver are suing ICE to prevent them from being at polling places.https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/10/us/elections/denver-ice-agents-voting-sites-lawsuit.html?unlocked_article_code=1.AFE.h8sy.JirhIgvmofXl&smid=url-share.  ICE at polling places are "intimidating" and "chilling", per Lopez..   Around 1/3 of Denver's population is Latino, per census data. 

The pretense for any plan to place ICE agents at polling places because non-citizens are voting in the US is, even by Trump's own questionable study, is a false pretense. DHS in 2026 in a study that claimed very questionable numbers and methods, said they found thousands, but even then, there were not enough incidents to have changed any outcome. https://www.npr.org/2026/08/19/nx-s1-5938799/trump-census-bureau-noncitizen-voting.  

In the primary this year, Griswold didn't raise the issue of who controls elections;  the state Democratic Party didn't raise it; her opponents didn't raise it; and the GOP itself did not either. There is a very big elephant in the room that is getting tiptoed around,  and I don't get it. Now, the same anti-Griswold campaign has appeared on social media today in time to kick off the general election in Colorado in November, in which Griswold is on the ballot for Attorney General.  That line of attack failed before in the primary, and there is no reason to believe it will succeed in the general. They are while referring to a 5-year-old negative report on her management style and claim she hid it. What is at stake is a national story..This is a deep blue state.  I, in all of my years in politics, have never seen anything like it when a state election's national implications are ignored as if they did not exist.

As a former election official myself, I have prided myself on supporting the clean election system that Colorado has (including that over 80% of ballots are "mailed in"). The mail-in system was constructed by GOP leadership and administered to the T by subsequent Secretaries of State, including Democrats like Griswold.  Colorado has had the most controversial free elections in the US. Its mail-in system uses, I hear, FBI-trained handwriting clerks of both parties to verify the ballots, and it is considered the gold standard in the US. For that reason alone, Griswold deserves accolades for her administrative skills and adherence to the rule of law. For an alleged  Gov. Polis or gubernatorial candidate/AG Phil Weiser or name identification for Griswold’s win in the primary, totally ignoring the elephant in the room: who controls elections- Trump or the state of Colorado. There was national focus on the big issue of whether election deniers could get away with grabbing the ballots and tabulation of the vote and sequestering them and giving authorized access to partisans because their allegiance was to Trump.. She disciplined county clerks for not following the carefully laid out rules of the state they were sworn to uphold on taking office. The most famous case was concerning Tina Peters. Griswold, with the help of the AG's office attorneys, beat Trump at his game. She had locked up the ballots in her county and gave access to a Trump partisan, putting up a co-worker to help her do it, and then covered it up with lies. This destroyed the chain of evidence and the required surveillance by others not in her party. Trump intervened to "free her" from a jury trial conviction, putting her in prison because she had committed a crime and a cover-up.  Peters became Trump's icon of the ideal county clerk: "defy local rules and do as I say", instead. Now it is no secret that Trump wants all election officials to act like Peters and control the election count to his benefit. Peters is his role model. There appear to have been election deniers placed in official positions all over the country. In Colorado, all GOP candidates for state offices- AG, SOS, governor- are election deniers, sworn to rectify the "stolen 2020 election."

  On the issue of Trump's demand that the details of all registered voters on state rolls be turned over to the feds, Griswold defied him, too, and that is another reason to admire her. Yesterday, Trump's demands to turn over voter rolls to the feds met their 23rd defeat in federal courts... as courts denied Trump's demand. We are now awaiting a Supreme Court ruling on Trump's demand to make the post office the agency to deny mail-in ballot delivery using those voter rolls. Trump has declared war on mail-in ballots, and that he uses them was yesterday’s headline. In the meantime, Trump has attempted to force Colorado to bend to his will by denying federal funds to Colorado, from food stamps to fighting wildfires, because we defied his demands as he tries to control the Nov midterm outcomes and lay the groundwork for another attempt to claim the election was stolen, as he told you in advance it was going to happen. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/06/us/politics/a-growing-number-of-election-deniers-hold-key-local-roles-in-midterms.htm

lhttps://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/trump-threatened-colorado-funding-as-punishment-over-tina-peters-judge-finds/https://www.denverpost.com/2026/08/14/colorado-donald-trump-tina-peters/

https://coloradonewsline.com/briefs/trump-colorado-voter-data-federal-judge

/https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/analyzing-presidents-executive-order-mail-voting

https://www.cpr.org/2026/08/14/trump-retaliation-colorado-email-tina-peters/?

https://www.denverpost.com/2026/08/14/colorado-donald-trump-tina-peters/

Trump and Tina Peters:  Trump takes care of his criminally convicted loyalists. Peters lands a job in California. https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/california-senators-call-for-maximum-oversight-over-conspiracist-tina-peters-new-election-job/?

Update on Peter's doings, 10/9/2026: Kyle Clark on Ch9 reported that Tina Peters had met with the White House to discuss having all election officials secure ballots for the GOP, as she did, and gave unauthorized access and control to a Trump loyalist, as she did in Colorado. She also tried to cover it up and lied. She was convicted by a jury. That got her the prison term under state law. She served 4 years until Trump pressured Gov. Polis to let her out early. She now thinks all election officials should commit the same crimes in her warped sense of what voter integrity means. In her meeting at the White House, she also supported a civil war. That is insane.

How Colorado detects fraud: https://coloradonewsline.com/2024/10/24/fraudulent-ballots-mesa-county-colorado/

Gov. Polis: Do not commute Tina Peters sentence for the sake of the integrity of future elections

Gov. Polis: Do not fall for Trump's pressure tactics. Do not commute Tina Peters' sentence or reduce it. It would harm the integrity of future elections. The process by which the state convicted her is not in question, nor is that the biggest issue. Trump et al. think the sentence was too harsh, given that Peters was a sworn supporter of him and obeyed what he had asked clerks to do nationwide instead of their oath to uphold election laws. Election integrity rules must be taken seriously. When clerks break rules and allow an outside partisan to have the code to the electronic system, as Peters did, that is not a trivial matter.  It is a serious one and deserves upholding the laws and rules for the purpose of preventing future partisan-tempted election officials from doing likewise.

To review what Peters did that got her 9 years, go to https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/tina-peters-lawyers-try-to-convince-colorado-court-to-overturn-conviction-for-voting-system-breach

President Trump has repeatedly threatened Colorado with "harsh measures"  demanding the immediate release of Tina Peters. Trump claims Peters is a "political prisoner," prompting actions like targeting state funding, affecting NCAR in Boulder,  SNAP benefits, and relocating Space Command. He keeps opposing mail in ballots, targeting Colorado as one of his threats concerning Peters.

All ballots cast in Colorado are manually voted on paper, whether by mail or in person at a polling place.

https://www.cpr.org/2024/10/08/vg-2024-how-your-vote-gets-counted-in-colorado/

Trump is trying to suppress the vote by his self-serving campaign against mail-in ballots, a system Colorado uses that is one of the most secure in the world, so long as those administering it are kept in line by laws we observe and respect.  Mail-in and poll cast ballots filled out manually by the voter and cast on paper are the backup system if a partisan county clerk like Tina Peters succeeds in damaging the integrity of the vote and the vote count.   Votes that are cast on paper ballots, whether by mail or in person, are easily audited, verified, and easily recounted.. The problem is in securing them. 

President Trump has repeatedly threatened Colorado with "harsh measures"  demanding the immediate release of Tina Peters, Trump claims Peters is a "political prisoner," prompting actions like targeting state funding, affecting NCAR in Boulder,  SNAP benefits,and relocating Space Command. 

. Paper ballots if kept secure per law and regs, are the way to find whether tinkering has taken place and a double check in a recount. When that system is in the hands of election-denying officials or loyal partisans or owned by them, do not trust AND verify.

Our prior tabulation of mail-in ballots and those cast on election day used by our county was Dominion, and MAGA lost in their attempt to claim they were one of the reasons Trump lost in 2020. MAGA solved that issue by having a Trump partisan buy out Dominion. Our county has now contracted with another system.

The key to protecting fair and free elections. What works.

 We all have our political priorities, and mine is fundamental. As a former election official myself, number one on my list is the preservation of free and fair elections, and Donald Trump is enemy number one with an attempt to "federalize elections" and to keep his enemies from voting by putting up all kinds of barriers. Those include banning mail-in balloting and "show me your papers" citizenship requirements. Not everyone can afford a passport or can produce a birth certificate, given the cost, ability, and time required. We do not have a national ID card. This is a movement Trump is promoting nationwide, and it is all based on the premise that the reason he lost the election is that illegals voted. FYI. There has never been any proof produced of the extent of such fraud that would change any outcome, and there is a trail of court cases wth judges that came to the same conclusion. Trump has fooled his faithful followers into willfully believing him. Now, using the same pretext, Trump is attempting to grab election registration details from states, such as Georgia and now Arizona, in an attempt to find a shred of evidence or, worse, to justify an attempt to selectively disqualify voters whom he objects. He is currently engaged in getting "election deniers" in every critical election official position he can so he can perpetuate his deception of the "steal" and control outcomes.

Trump's claim that widespread fraud in mail-in balloting so it needs to be curtailed is also based on BS. There is evidence that there is so little fraud that election resiults were not impacted.. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/mail-voting-in-the-us-data-points-to-very-low-fraud-and-significant-benefits-to-voters/

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: How Trump plans to subvert the midterms: it is no secret

Trump says he won't sign any bills until SAVE America Act passes

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: Trump wants to GOP nationalize elections and control the vote count: that's what dictators do

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: SAVE us from the SAVE act

In Colorado, where mail-in voting is the overwhelmingly popular method of voting even when polling places are available, we are a testament to how well mail-in voting works in modern tech society. With computerization, illegal voting is virtually nonexistent because it is possible to cross-check various databases to determine eligibility for registration, as well as being a legitimate voter. There are two critical positions in Colorado government firmly supported and ably protected that keep our voting systems fair and free: the Secretary of State and the Attorney General. Both are ably and dedicated and deserve our recognition for their work: Secretary of State Jena Griswold and Attorney General Phil Weiser. It is key that whoever fills those positions is the most knowledgeable, experienced, and able to continue their priorities with the same knowledge, technical ability, and dedication.

Trump wants to GOP nationalize elections and control the vote count: that's what dictators do

Trump wants to GOP nationalize elections and control the vote count: that's what fascists and communist dictators do. 

Trump urges Republicans to 'take over' and 'nationalize' voting - ABC News

Trump wants the GOP to take over the vote in blue states. It is very difficult for a dictator to control the vote when there are 51  different states and the District of Columbia. He tried something like that in 2020. His minions asked all local clerks to secure the voting and tabulating machines. One clerk in Colorado took the orders seriously, gave access codes to a Trump-loyal volunteer, and locked away the machinery. Tina Peters has become the poster child of the violation of state laws and rules to protect faith by the public in fair and free elections. The voter system, laws, and rules were set up by a Republican administration in Colorado years ago. Peters still sits in a state jail after conviction. Now Trump wants the GOP to become Tina Peters.

Trump's false pretense of such dirty tricks is that the 2020 election was stolen because all of those illegals voted and mail-in votes are all a fraud, their propagandists and a delusional Trump claim. In over 6 years, over 60 court decisions, such attempts to prove these claims have failed.

 Trumpists must think that if they can get voters' personal information, they can prove their pretext, the Constitution provisions delegating election controls to states be hanged. That strategy has met some speed bumps as many Secretaries of State have put up a vigorous pushback. There are methods in Trump's madness because controlling access to the details of voters also gives the holderthe ability to target voter suppression techniques to specific voters and voter blocks. The DOJ has demanded Colorado’s and more than 19 other states'voter rolls information, including driver’s license numbers and the last four digits of voters’ Social Security numbers, and is attempting to change the post office delivery terms for mail-in ballots so they are counted by local officials.  There may be hope as a federal judge blocked the DOJ request for Oregon on 1/27/26. Federal judge blocks Trump DOJ access to Oregon voter rolls    Trump Administration Has Sued More than 20 States for Refusing to Turn Over Voter Files | Brennan Center for Justice

 In six years, no evidence has emerged that had evidence of that or that the 2020 vote was stolen. Of course, the election in 2024 must have had all the integrity in the world when Trump won, and MAGA did, too, up and down the ballots. That pretext to seize ballots has not died, and just last week it was once again dredged up. This Trumpian raid and the snatching of Georgia 2020 ballots smells like a pretext to keep the House in GOP hands by throwing the 2026 midterms into chaos.  This could explain the strange raid last week and the presence of national security officials trying to reinvent that one state election to concoct a pretext for federal takeover of the vote in selected blue states..  If Trump and his administration can't win one way (the predictions are he will lose control of the House), they will find another way, and this one is ugly.  

There are suspicions, rumors, and theories circulating that Trump wants to call in the National Guard to "secure" the machines. He advocated that in his first term. Even more disquieting is the fear that he will use his personal paramilitary militia, ICE, to use the pretext that illegal migrants are voting. Of course, the election in 2024 must have had all the integrity in the world when Trump won, and MAGA did, too, up and down the ballots. 

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: If the Trump regime tries destroy Colorado's vote integrity in 2026 a buzz saw awaits

Voting in Authoritarian Elections | American Political Science Review | Cambridge Core

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: Why does Trump seem not to care he facing plunging polls and a loss of the House in November?

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: What Trump may try in November 2026 midterms even fascists and communists did not do

If the Trump regime tries destroy Colorado's vote integrity in 2026 a buzz saw awaits

Update 1/30/2026  FBI raid in Georgia has little legal basis – but serves Trump’s goal to weaken trust in election results | Georgia | The Guardian    Why now? FBI raid in Georgia has little legal basis – but serves Trump’s goal to weaken trust in election results | Georgia | The Guardian Why now? Here is why, as the British press tries to explain this to its readers. It is to undermine our faith in the integrity of our voting. My comment: This kind of action constitutes an attempt to create a pretext for federal takeover and control of elections by separate states. The beauty of having elections controlled separately by each of the 50 states is the protection it provides from just a tyrannical wannabe who wants to control who can vote and the outcome of the vote. The tyrant may succeed in a state or two, but not in the entire nation. It is a matter that may both suit an egomaniac power-mad tyrant, but it also serves to try to shape public opinion to accept the end of our ability to trust that our elections are free and fair, the fundamental undermining of democracy that is a government of, by, and for the people, regardless of whoever sits in the Oval Office. All voters of any affiliation must understand that there is an effort to make sure your voice expressed in a vote can be ignored and you no longer count in determining who governs you if this trust is broken and breaking the trust is what such actions like the Fulton raid is also about. Note: Felicia Muftic is a former Denver elections official who holds trust in the integrity of elections sacred.

Update 1/29/2026: Trump's obsession with the 2020 elections, an attempt to prove it was stolen 6 years later, and his FBI raid on the Fulton County, Georgia, voting records could be attributed to an out-of-control personality quirk of an egomaniac who never admits a loss, or worse. Trump looks like he has an obsession with rewriting history to fit a false narrative and to justify anti democratic power grabs.. In recent history, communists and fascists, from Hitler to Mao, have used this propaganda tactic.

What is most scary about this is that there is a concerted drive to undermine fair and free elections more easily by putting voter records kept separately by 50 states per the Constitutiion into the hands a federal control and to set up the acceptance of a FBI loyal only to the president to undertake such similar actions to do so in the future, including November 2026 and 2028. Political scientist Jason Stanley warned about this in his recent book.Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future: Stanley, Jason: 9781668056912: Amazon.com: Books

FBI searches Atlanta election office, chasing Trump 2020 vote fraud claims | Reuters

Continuing with original post:

The Trump regime is threatening to hurt Colorado voter integrity in November.  The Colorado Secretary of State is ready protect our vote from the Trump attempt to federalize voter counts and elections in direct contradiction to the Constitution. Expect Trump et al will try to keep Colorado's vote from being counted, as well as any blue states,  throwing the results of who gets the majority in Congress into chaos and dispute. They will meet a buzz saw if they try such tricks on Colorado. Colorado has a plan and backup plans. 

Threat of force won’t change Colorado secretary of state’s mind on voter rolls, mail-in ballots 

Trump's false pretense of such dirty tricks is still: the 2020 election was stolen because all of those illegals voted and mail-in votes are all a fraud, their propagandists and a delusional Trump claim.. In over 6 years, such attempts to prove these claims have failed. They think if they can get voters' personal information, they can prove their pretext, the Constitution provisions delegating elections to states be hanged. The DOJ has requested Colorado’s voter rolls, including driver’s license numbers and the last four digits of voters’ Social Security numbers, and is attempting to change the post office delivery terms of mail-in ballots to be counted by local officials.  There may be hope as a federal judge blocked the DOJ request for Oregon 1/27/26. Federal judge blocks Trump DOJ access to Oregon voter rolls

  This Trumpian scheme smells like a pretext to keep the House in GOP hands by throwing the 2026 midterms into chaos.  In the longterm, it is also a way to put the control of elections in the hands of the federal government over vote outcomes, voter participation, and election results.  If Trump and his administration can't win one way (the predictions are he will lose control of the House), they will find another way, and this one is ugly.  It will mean the end of fair and free elections that we can trust.

Why does Trump seem not to care he facing plunging polls and a loss of the House in November?

Updated: 3/1/ 2026 Whether the Iran attack will change Trump's approval ratings by November or influence the outcome of the midterms is yet a matter of speculation, but there will be time for the longer-term impact to be revealed and felt. That ridding the world of the odious Iranian leadership in power until a day ago was indeed an impressive display of the US and Israel's military/intelligence capability, but whether what follows is an improvement in the West's eyes is a gamble. If the US gets involved on the ground in another forever war will be seen as a failure of Trump's foreign policy and military strategy.

 That Trump does not care a whit what even his followers think,  nor even making a serious attempt to make a clear case in the leadup to the attack, is a further sign that Trump thinks he is a dictator who can ignore polls, public opinion, war powers acts, and commit a reversal of promises not to get in the mud mire of mid -east wars. The initial reaction by Trump's supporters in Congress is that they are happy to continue to anoint him as "their" dictator and to give up their own power to benefit his lust for more and more power.

Updated: 2/3/2026

Polls today, nearly all of them, show Trump's approval is sinking into Nixon territory, and nearly 60% of Americans disapprove of his top issues: immigration, affordability, and land grabs of foreign territories. He is already brushing off the loss of the House this November. Why does he seem not to care that voters feel the pain, and instead, just doubles down? He seems in a hurry to get revenge and punish his enemies and is engaged in stuffing his personal wealth with crypto converted to dollars and exchange fees while the getting is good. He is acting like a deranged fascist dictator gorging himself in a candy shop and satiating an appetite that craves for more and more power and control, domestic and abroad, and getting away with it before he is stopped in November: Why? He keeps issuing executive orders that he treats like they are the law, but that are blatantly unconstitutional. He counts on court delays and appeals to give him time and let him keep on violating the Constitution. He is hinting at calling off even the November 2026 and 2028 elections or confiscating ballot boxes, or declaring some national emergency or a cooked-up insurgency, as a pretext for military occupation.  Observers fear he is hoping that the streets turn so ugly he can use ICE as a pretext to invoke the insurrection act, using military,  and his ICE paramilitary, even Joe Rogan calls it a Gestapo,  funded and in place and able to act as his personal army. Why?  MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: Trump wants to GOP nationalize elections and control the vote count: that's what dictators do

 Why has this happened? 

(1). First and foremost, there is no one or no way to stop Trump's lust for power, and he knows it.  He has whipped Congress into subservience as they cower in fear of crossing him. Court rulings? He just figures a way around them and keeps on enforcing and executing his orders while the courts delay, delay, delay decisions and hear appeals upon appeals.  He may even ignore court rulings if there is an insurgency, he hinted to the New York Times recently. He believes he has the power to do it. Update 1 20 2026: A comprehensive report of how Trump and conservative GOP leaders are turning America into a unitary form of governement. (Unitary form: all power to the executive with eliminating checks and balances of the legislature and judiciary...( That in my view is a polite description of an autocracy) Trump Tests Presidential Power: Venezuela Operation, Iran Bombing and More - The New York Times

 (2)  He is a lame duck who will never have to face angry voters again, so he can ignore them, even those in his own party.

(3)"His" Supreme Court gave him immunity from criminal prosecution, so breaking the law is of no concern to him.

.(4) He is counting on his partisan loyalists of about 40% of all adults polled, to keep him going and have his back. 

(5) Update: 1/27/2026 He is planning some dirty tricks to disenfranchise votes of citizens in blue states...and especially in Colorado. Trump's attempt to federalize voter counts and elections in direct contradiction to the Constitution. Expect Trump et al will try to keep Colorado's vote from being counted, as well as any blue states,  throwing the results of who gets the majority in Congress into chaos and dispute. They will meet a buzz saw if they try such tricks on Colorado. Colorado has a plan and backup plans. Threat of force won’t change Colorado secretary of state’s mind on voter rolls, mail-in ballots   

Tump's false pretense of such dirty tricks is still: the 2020 election was stolen because all of those illegals voted and mail-in votes are all a fraud, their propagandists and a deluded Trump claim.. In over 6 years such attempts to prove these claims have failed. They think if they can get voters' personal information, they can prove their pretext.  In reality, this is just a pretext to keep themselves in power by throwing the 2026 midterms into chaos.   

 What to do; what to do, hand wringers? The only way to stop two more years of this is still an overwhelming vote and kicking out his political allies up and down the ballot in the midterms. In the meantime, angry voters have to deny Trump a fascist style pretext for such a military-like takeover of democracy by keeping their protests peaceful, large, and focusing on voter registration and turnout. FYI: an insurrection is not peaceful protestors nor even a handful of violent protestors...but Trump threatens to invoke the insurrection act, nonetheless. Those threats will go nowhere if the protests remain peaceful.

 In the meantime, cool it, hot heads, you who want to vent anger with violence.  As Minnesota officials say, "Don't take the bait". ICE hopes you do lose self-control and become violent. They will then have a pretext to invoke the Insurrection Act and oppress you with overwhelming military-like force. As they escalate their violent behavior, they are provoking you to answer in kind. Don't. If you play this right, your day will come to oust these MAGA. The real power, the opinions of the majority of the people, is the force that is already with you. So is a federal judge. Don't mess it up. 

Judge Restricts Immigration Agents’ Actions Toward Minnesota Protesters - The New York Times Renee Good killing is the straw that broke the camel's back. Judge clamps down on ICE actions to suppress Minneapolis protesters exercising their constitutional rights with flash bangs, pepper spray, chemical agents, and excessive force by combat-ready ICE paramilitary-garbed agents... We are not yet a militarized police state working on behalf of a government leadership determined to get its way by any means, including violence. Let's see if this gets appealed or ignored.

These ICE are not patriots or just police. They are a masked paramilitary, claiming they are a law enforcement agency, while using excessive force techniques to take down their targets and use violent weapons of crowd control, inflaming, not de-escalating, being overtly racist, targeting those who are brown or looks like a migrant, in a way that would have gotten local policemen fired, suspended, prosecuted, and even imprisoned. The agents wear masks and display no badge numbers, so citizens cannot hold individual agents accountable. Their leader claims they have total immunity from prosecution and conceals evidence that could lead to prosecution, even for murder. Wearing masks makes them look fierce and threatening as well. No local police agency condones this.  

Here is the real value of organizations like Indivisible and 50501. They give the opposition cover and safety in numbers,, and give them the guts, non-violent techniques, and the discipline to stand up peacefully. They provide a non-party-based outlet, support, and protest opportunity for disaffected GOP members, independent,  unaffiliated voters, and Democrats dissatisfied with their own party's leadership.  The tent of these groups is welcoming, with room for a wide variety of ideologies and public policy issues.   They have the ability with vast lists of activists and their emails, leaders trained,  ready, able, and willing to galvanize voters in November. This is not the MLK civil rights movement of 50 or so years ago, but it is similar in its spirit, and it has drawn on many of the same peaceful and effective techniques of protest. The Indivisible types of protesters know from their education what kind of democracy we have and why it is so valuable. They know the difference between our kind of democracy and dictatorships. They have also inspired other organizations, grassroots, and neighborhood groups to adopt their same techniques, so it is creating a movement that goes far beyond the influence of the Indivisible lists of participants. 

 Sometimes polls do not get the complete picture if they fail to ask the right questions: I looked at the most recent one at the beginning of February.  The question of whether you believe Trump is damaging democracy was not asked....or even if that was an issue in some rankings. The closest to testing that is do you approve of Trump's job or performance? When asked that way, Trump's slide is only from 49% to 45%, yet the special election results show a decisive shift in the matter of 15 or more points.  Something is not adding up and there seems to be a disconnect between polling and voter action.

  Trump approval rating falls across every major issue in new poll   Here is another view by a heavyweight think tank taken before the Minneapolis murders. This one says the reason for the shifts in job approval is that Trump is losing blocks of voters who voted for him in 2024: young voters, independents, Hispanics. As President Trump loses support, Republican prospects in the 2026 midterms grow darker | Brookings  Such polls must give Trump comfort that his job approval has not fallen before 40% (usually below 40% signals real trouble). 

What gives Trump discomfort is  what happens in November 2026 could very likely shift Congress blue, opening him up to impeachment (again) and trimming his budget wings, as well as stopping ICE's cruel dragnet approach that sweeps up and imprisons non-criminals, legal immigrants with no criminal records, and even American citizens.  Doing it cruelly and trampling civil rights seems part of their plan now.. 

Trump is rightly correct in pointing out he is not on the ballot in November, and that is why he is likely lose Congress in any case. The other way he can get around this is if he tries to interfere with our elections using dirty tricks he has up his sleeve as feared in terms of takeover of the election process nationally..Another factor will be how many protesters marching in the street are increasing to over 3.5% of the voters (12 million), usually a threshold of success for peaceful protests successfully causing regime change elsewhere in the world per political scientists studying that history, though even smaller percentages have been successful. .  The Minneapolis effect could well boost the ranks of marching protesters to that level. The '3.5% rule': How a small minority can change the world | Harvard Kennedy School

 As much as the Trump regime tries to say these are paid agitators and organizers, they are fooling themselves and MAGA. Without millions themselves realizing they are the only way to stop this wannabe dictator, since the guardrails against such have failed, Indivisible could never have succeeded in turning out so many, mostly white, educated middle-class people of all ages.  The participants have been willing to risk Trump's threats and abuse of power, "screw their courage to a sticking post" (Shakespeare) all across America, and for many, for the first time in their lives, to get out and march in support of democracy. They know a wannabe King, tyrant, dictator when they see one because they remember what they learned about the history of the 1930s  in Europe, the 1950's to current times in South America, and how ordinary people suffered under such rule, causing many to flee their home countries to western democracies. (There is a reason the migrants are not hordes flowing to such dictatorships.) They see it happening here and now.  Above all, they are a pro-democracy force that wants to preserve the kind of democracy we have had for 250 years, of, by, and for the people  (not of, by, and for a one-man, small minority,  or oligarchic ruler). They know about such dictatorships that, once in power, they only care enough to trickle down just enough to the masses to keep them from violently revolting. The rest of the tax benefits and grift is for their personal lifestyles and the causes that serve them. The goal of such autocrats is to stay in power by whatever means, including violence.  

CNN poll: Democrats are deeply motivated for the midterms despite having dismal views of party leaders

 

Are Trump's supporters getting what they want from his second term? Here's what a new poll shows

A post from mid December which  dives deeper into why and what of Trump's brand of fascism, or whatever you call how he is acting. MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: My nagging question: why does fascism keep raising its ugly head

A post written in October: MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: What is MAGA? Whatever you call it, it is not conservative, but something else.

Why are ICE agents so prone to violence and so dedicated to taking down anyone who looks like a migrant. Look at who they are recruiting. Whatever could go wrong? . The US government seems to have a clear message for white nationalists | CNN Politics

Grocery price inflation end of 2025: up 2.4 percent  tariff role per an ABC news report.Grocery inflation is picking up, defying Trump's claims. Here's why.

Gas prices at pump..just below $3 per gallon; mid Jan 2026 AAA Fuel Prices  Not..below $2 per gal as Trump claims.

Housing price inflation:Housing price inflation, 1967→2026

Energy cost inflation: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/21/why-electricity-prices-are-surging-for-us-households.html#:~:text=Electricity%20prices%20are%20rising%20quickly,the%20electric    Nearly 5% in 2025

Two states, one red, one blue, just defied Trump's atttack on states ability to control their elections.

 December 11, 2025, was a civics lesson in states' rights to control their elections:Two states, one red, one blue, just defied Trump's attack on their states' rights, defying his attempts to federalize and control the election process and state laws. The GOP majority in the Indiana state senate refused to go along with Trump's pressure and threats of being primaried and losing federal funds if they refused to redistrict boundaries gerrymandered to increase GOP Congressional votes in time for the 2026 midterms. As one GOP state senator who voted to defy Trump on this issue commented on MSNOW, Indiana Republicans favor small government, and they resented Trump's pressure to federalize partisan advantages. The Indiana senators also defied death and bomb threats to do it.

In another case in Colorado, Trump declared once again that he would pardon Tina Peters, who is currently in a Colorado prison, having been found guilty of violating state election laws when she sought to take favorable action on behalf of Trump. Colorado officials, the governor, attorney general, and secretary of state said no, and also defied the president and his threats. They asserted that Trump can only pardon those found guilty of violating federal laws, per the Constitution, not state laws. Peters was convicted under state election laws.

Holding ICE thuggery to local laws is about to happen in Colorado

 There has been a lot of talk about holding ICE agents to the rule of law. Here is a case in Colorado of that happening. The rough treatment of a protester will now be investigated by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. Poorly trained, poorly screened ICE agent hires have created situations when they act like thugs...and violent ones at that. Not only is it "not a good look", it may also break the law...in the case of Colorado state laws. These are the legal arguments

Update 11/23/2025 Detainees not flight risks should be bonded out https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-dealt-a-blow-as-hundreds-detained-in-immigration-crackdown-ordered-to-be-freed/ar-AA1QjIWC

Update: 11.10/2025 Real people doing otherwise everything right are being destroyed by smash-and-grab ICE, and these actions are out of control. Those who think anyone without documents, still doing the right thing, deserves to be kicked out of the country . All undocumented are de facto criminals, goes the argument, so kick them out. Being undocumented is a misdemeanor (petty crime) at worst. Entering the country illegally is a misdemeanor. Overstaying a visa is a civil law problem; you get sued.. If you reenter the country after being deported, that is a criminal offense. If you get charged for a petty crime like a misdemeanor, maybe you deserve to be treated like you have committed theft, robbery, murder, and assault, too. to be. thrown into detention and having to hire a lawyer, too? . A ticket and a court date is fair...a fine and public service work for you, right? But...not for brown people? Undocumented immigrants have protection under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, which guarantee due process and equal protection under the law. As a result, undocumented immigrants cannot be deprived of life, liberty, or property without fair legal proceedings.  

These are the legal arguments I am giving, but for the moral and religious thought, Pope Leo has some pointed thoughts. So do the protestant and Catholic clerics now activated to protest. Catholic Group Sues Trump Administration for Access to Immigration Facility - The New York Times

Pope Leo, Catholic bishops come out against 'vilification' of immigrants in U.S. | CBC News

Sometimes we get tied up in knots over the legal issues surrounding ICE operations. What we also need to do is to take stock of the moral issues. I have seen posted on this and other FB sites hateful attacks on all immigrants that do not reflect the poster's preference for who they want to let come into this country and who they want to expel. In reflection of this, while I am not a Catholic (I am a white protestant), the Catholic church has come out against "vilification" of migrants. This hatred of migrants who are not like the majority White Chirstians here, is not a Christian value.

Besides, snatching people who speak another language and look like they are south of the Rio Grande is race-based profiling and sweeps up those lawfully here, but the snatchers themselves are acting illegally themselves. Grab first and sort it out later flies in the face of both civil rights and human rights. and due process, and the courts are ruling, the ICE snatchers are acting illegally.

\ Trump promised to deport the rapists, murderers, and gang members, but he has made this into getting rid of everyone who looks brown, which goes way past his promise. I give him credit for closing the border, but I condemn the method of using ICE snatch and grab and total disregards of key provisions in the bill of Rights and amendments, from violence against protestors to unlawful detainment of so many, to racial profiling and acts of cruelty and paramilitary masked forces who are contracted and loyal to their employer, Department of Homeland Security, but not to the Constitution. It is not just a "bad look", it is not the America I know...and is worthy of some other bad acting country we once condemned..

• Constitutional violations: Racial profiling is illegal because it is a form of racial discrimination that violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Additionally, if a stop and frisk is based on race rather than reasonable suspicion of a crime, it is considered an unreasonable search and seizure under the Fourth Amendment.
• Legal precedent: In the 2013 case Floyd v. City of New York

Update: 11/6/2025 In New Jersey, in he governor's race on Tuesday, highly Hispanic counties with 41% voting in 2024, for Trump voted 15% for the GOP gubernatorial candidate per reports I have seen.. That is a dramatic shift in less than a year. Trump erased any gains in the Hispanic community for a good reason: ICE thuggery and overreach.

I have the advantage of being in contact with Hispanics, living in a resort area in Colorado that relies heavily on Hispanics for construction, maintenance of short-term rental properties, restaurants, and landscaping. Nearly all Hispanics I come in contact with, including some long-term tenants of my rental property, mostly had green cards, thought they were safe in a remote small community, and knew to keep a low profile, work hard, were ultra law-abiding, and were valued members of the community. That was until ICE came along, and we have had some very public examples of ICE thuggery in Colorado's western slope small towns. One case now being investigated by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation that resulted in an assault on an anti-ICE demonstrator in Denver, who was protesting the grabbing of a father and his two kids on the way to school, was admitted by ICE as a case of mistaken identity, though the father they picked up was undocumented with no criminal record.. The Durango community is up in arms...and some are pointing fingers at their local police for collaborating with ICE in the violent assault on a woman anti-ICE demonstrator being hurled to the ground and injured, the act caught on phone video by a bystander.. This may become more of an issue, as it will be one of the first cases in which ICE is held accountable for breaking state criminal laws.

Hispanics I know who have green cards tell me they are terrified of the violence of ICE and indiscriminate grabbing of otherwise law-abiding members of the community. None of course vote, but nearly all have relatives who do since their families are often mixed status, with citizens, too, in Denver or elsewhere, some of whose members have also been swept up in ICE overreach.. Terrified is the term they most often use lately. At first, Hispanics I knew were happy Trump was getting rid of drug dealers and gang members; now they are terrified of the overreach of ICE. I am not Hispanic, and I am happy the border is closed. I thought Trump was promising to limit ICE to getting already adjudicated criminals (murderers and rapists), but their total defiance of due process and indiscriminate...grab, detain, anyone who looks Hispanic, and sort out later... is outrageous, and then assaulting protestors is even more outrageous. The father and his two kids are still in detention somewhere in Texas. No wonder the Hispanic community is now "woke".

Colorado is being singled out by Trump's DOJ trying to validate conspiracy theories

Colorado is being singled out by Trump's DOJ, trying to validate conspiracy theories, by demanding Colorado turn over election files.

All the States Where DOJ is Demanding Voting Data - Democracy Docket

This may still be a case of revenge and retribution for the Tina Peters case, I suspect, and a continuation of efforts to prove that the 2020 election was indeed stolen. It is also an attempt by the Trump administration to establish a case for federalizing the election process and removing it from the hands of the states.   The recent attack on Colorado's elections administration is also, I suspect, another diversion by the Trump administration to change the subject from other very unpopular policies and actions that are polling badly.  Trump threatens Colorado with ‘harsh measures’ unless it frees a convicted felon

 Recently revealed was another suspected irregularity by an election-denying county clerk in my own Grand County, Colorado:, An election denier was elected county clerk a couple of years ago, and in 2024, the Secretary of State had to intervene because she had broken the chain of custody by failing to follow procedure. Missing seals in 2024 led Secretary of State’s Office to enact oversight on Grand County elections | SkyHiNews.com. Whether this was due to intent or incompetence will not be known, but the clerk nonetheless failed to follow the rules in maintaining ballot integrity. The former clerk, a Republican who had retired and whom she replaced, was tasked by the Democratic state Secretary of State to straighten out the problem, and the current election-denying clerk was required to relearn election procedures.

More at: https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2025/04/trumps-power-grab-includes-federalizing.html

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: Colorado, an epicenter of the conflict between election deniers and established voting systems.

 

Tina Peters was sentenced to 9 years. https://www.cnbc.com/2024/10/03/trump-election-conspiracist-tina-peters-sentenced.html

Hear how the judge came down on her: Colorado County Clerks Association responds to Tina Peters' sentence | Watch (msn.com)

Update on immigration issues: Harris gains and Trump's BS exposed

Update 9 28 24 : There's a new sheriff coming to town: Harris on immigration: go to https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/09/harris-on-immigration-theres-new.html

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Update 9 28 24  Aurora, Colorado is now a Trump hype of Venezuelan gangs taking over the city. That is the usual tactic of Trump: take a limited event and blow it up to apply to the whole.  Such has been the case in Aurora, Colorado.  The gang activity was limited to a few buildings. Gang members have already been arrested and charged and will likely be in jail  and then on their way back to Venezuela with their special protective status revoked.  That is the way it works. https://www.axios.com/local/denver/2024/09/11/aurora-venezuelan-gang-arrests-mike-coffman-danielle-jurinsky

Update 9/4/24: (Also reproduced as a separate posting)  Fear and loathing of all immigrants is key to Trump's campaign. However, it is based on factual BS.  The facts on the immigrant crime wave? There is not one.  https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/debunking-myth-migrant-crime-waveTrump sabotaged the only bipartisan bill to address it this past winter. Biden used what executive powers he had and cooperation by Mexico. The result was the lowest illegal crossing in 3 years. Catch and release is down 65%. We would have been on our way to even lower figures without Trump's wrecking the bill..  The executive orders Biden utilized face court challenges, but for now it has been effective and is still in effect. In addition, Mexico has cracked down on migrants, tripling their deportations.  Trump's campaign of fear and hatred of immigrants causing crime is debunked by statistics, ignored by  Trump's MAGA whose fuel is hatred of others unlike them.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/border-crossings-us-mexico-border-june-2024

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/06/26/border-crossings-drop-biden-policy-00165055          

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/mexico-stopping-three-times-as-many-migrants-as-last-year-rcna146821

Immigrants, as a whole, are less likely to commit violent crimes. https://www.npr.org/2024/03/08/1237103158/immigrants-are-less-likely-to-commit-crimes-than-us-born-americans-studies-find

Illegal immigrants are not more likely to commit violent crimes: in fact, the opposite is true: https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/debunking-myth-migrant-crime-wave

Will Biden's executive order survive a legal challenge? "Biden's proclamation leans on Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act that lets a president limit entry of specific migrants if it is "detrimental" to national interest. Trump used the same provisions with his 2017 banning of people from Muslim-majority countries and a later policy barring asylum seekers that was ultimately struck down by courts. Biden administration officials insist the new proposal is very different, but that will likely do little to prevent expected lawsuits to stop it. The American Civil Liberties Union vowed to challenge the order in court. "It was illegal when Trump did it, and it is no less illegal now," said Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the organization's Immigrants’ Rights Project. "    https://www.texastribune.org/2024/06/04/texas-mexico-border-biden-immigration-asylum-policy.

A humane approach to immigration policy is the bi-partisan bill Trump killed because he wanted the issue to still be hot as he campaigns. There is also a possibility to contrast policies that may have a broader appeal to those who indeed want the border crisis to be handled, but not with the cruelty of Trump's plan.  What the bi-partisan bill lacks is Trump's plan to use the US Army to break up families with mixed status (an estimated 6.7 million families) and deport 20K total without documents, putting them in concentration camps waiting for deportation. 

Harris  needed to revive flagging Hispanic support of Democrats (Trump 46%; Biden was 40%) that was a reverse of past statistics and the left flank of Democrats uneasy with even the bi-partisan bill Trump killed. The first step is to attack Trump for killing the bi-partisan bill. which Harris just did. With illegal border crossings now equal to Trump's data as he left office, the Democrats have highlighted that update.  Harris has gained significant approval by Hispanics, but there is still more to do. https://www.semafor.com/article/09/03/2024/kamala-harris-poll-hispanic-voters-climate-healthcare The next could be to paint the Trump approach based on racism, hate, cruelty, and fear, while the bipartisan bill approach is both humane and effective. With many in the Latino community also resenting the flood of migrants at the border, the humane plan of Harris might have some appeal. Harris is following the old bit of wisdom: the best defense is a great offense. However, she still needs to reverse the loss of Hispanic voters...https://thehill.com/homenews/4801766-kamala-harris-donald-trump-border